University tribute to women shows men only

A billboard for the Rita Spatz Women's Wall of Honour is seen along Barrington Street in Halifax on Tuesday afternoon. (RYAN TAPLIN / Staff)

A new billboard encouraging people to honour the women in their lives may have passersby scratching their heads.

The Barrington Street ad features three smiling men in suits.

The billboard promotes a Mount Saint Vincent University campaign for its Women’s Wall of Honour project, a tribute that will be erected outside the new Margaret Norrie McCain Centre for Teaching, Learning and Research when it opens in December 2014.

For a donation of $1,200, honourees’ names will be included in the Wall of Honour and their stories will be shared on an associated website.

But the campaign has confused some commuters.

“I see their billboard on Barrington every morning on the way to #HFX and I always think ‘what? why would they do that?’” Kathryn Walsh (@Kathryn821) tweeted Tuesday afternoon.

University spokesman Ben Boudreau said using men to advertise a project about women wasn’t intended to be controversial or jarring.

“I don’t know that we were really shooting for juxtaposition there, to be honest with you. It was just about reaching a different audience.”

Many of the donors to the Wall of Honour have been women, and the university wanted to appeal to another demographic, especially with Mother’s Day coming up, Boudreau said.

So far, 270 women have been identified for inclusion in the project.

The billboard features Paul Kent, the president and chief executive officer of the Greater Halifax Partnership, former provincial Liberal leader Danny Graham and Rob Batherson, the senior vice-president of public affairs at Colour, an advertising and communications company. Each of the men has donated to the university.

Mount Saint Vincent University will honour 17 more women inside the new building when it opens. For a donation of $250,000 or more, sponsors will see their honouree’s name and picture on an embroidered banner inside the centre’s atrium.

Those honourees will include Mi’kmaq poet Rita Joe, the community of the Sisters of Charity and former lieutenant-governor Myra Freeman.

The university expects to break ground on the new building next week. Housing university departments, as well as classroom, meeting and event space, it will be the first new academic building constructed on campus in 40 years.